Blue Monday

I promised more fun so enjoy my blues today! My nephew Sean made his first holy communion last Sunday at his parish in Longmont, Colorado. The service was beautiful and the little ones looked so sweet. I am sharing Sean in his beautiful navy blue suit!

Here is the pretty cake his mom Holly had made especially for him:

See all the lovely blue trim? It was so D E L I C I O U S ! She had it made at a new bakery and the cake was wonderful and decorated so sweetly!

I still have my first communion prayer book. I made my first holy communion on April 29, 1962:

I do have a black and white photo too  with me being so pious and holy. I actually do remember this moment quite specifically. It was a wonderful moment to share with the Lord. I felt He was only watching over me at that moment. I remember my folks gave me a little faux fur wrap and I wore that thing everywhere. I still have my group photo too. It brings back lots of wonderful memories. I knew those kids my entire school life.  I will have to do a black and white photo day and share some childhood photos with you soon.

I hope you visit Sweet Smiling Sally and all the other blue participates this week. Have a beautiful blue Monday!

Love is....

I have written a few wellness posts this week so I wanted to change the pace and go with something fun! Although I am unsure if I would attempt this trick I think this Love is...points out the obvious. We all need to spend our lives with someone who will care for us, stay at our side in good times and bad and never let go of our heart! Please let Marydon know you love the love is...meme and come join us please! It is so mch fun to see what everyone posts!

I thought I would share a bit of fun today and tomorrow!

Last Sunday my nephew Sean made his first communion at his church in Longmont, Colorado. We drove up there to attend the Mass and my niece Holly had a nice dinner at their house afterwards. I was sitting the closest to the end of the pew. Holding seats (haha) for late comers including my oldest daughter Noelle and grandson Colton. They went around the other side and sat at the opposite end! Which left me with my nieces in-laws! They were like two little kids!Non stop talking in church! They are non believers and I had to pray that I would not lose my cool in church! LOL! I was thinking, if the two of you just sit still and be quiet you would hear what is going on! I personally like attending churches that have different services and I enjoy watching and listening what is going on! I am grateful the Lord kept whispering Shh....to me to sit still and listen. He really puts me in the most awkward situations. I think I am learning new lessons. The photo from the church website is a beautiful garden surrounding the church. John the Baptist, who was the cousin of Christ, is my second favorite biblical person next to the Lord Himself! John's faith never wavered. He let go and let God guide him!

I have not visited with the Spiritual Sunday crew for quite some time.  The blogger pest won't let me link but catch us on Facebook too at Spiritual Sunday's! Charlotte has been such a doll and she always accepts my prayer requests for the prayer blog.Today I want to share a favorite verse:

"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

PRETTY IN PINK

I was writing a wellness post earlier this week and I decided to checkout some work out clothing for the ultimate wellness program!

In honor of Pink Saturday I thought you would all like this "Love Pink" hoodie! So here is a google image to share along with lots of great pink images to add to my healthy workout collection:

Lots of pink styling here to add to a bunch of other colorful choices!

Even a pink exercise ball!

With a pink gym bag and those sweet Nike training shoes you will be ready to have your healthy workout and have some room for a perfect pink treat:

A strawberry pink protein shake!

Don't forget to visit Beverly and wish her well today and thank her for sharing "pink" with us each week! Please don't forget your pink water bottle!

"W" is for Wellness

I feel like a bear!

Hibernating all winter long! Now I need to get up and get outdoors and get lots of exercise!

Why can't any of these commercials show real people? They never show anyone who truly wants to lose a few lbs. They have super model and celebrity bodies showing you how to get rid of that unsightly fat! LOL!

I have to admit, Richard Simmons really worked out with "real" people! He inspired me but not as much as

Jack LaLanne! He was the ultimate "godfather" of fitness. His wellness techniques allowed him to live a very long life. He passed away at the age of 96!

Instead of wishing for a healthier lifestyle I am going to start on one this summer.. With Nick heading off to college in Kansas we will be  traveling a lot. So burning off a few pounds and feeling stronger will be a great benefit.

We juice a lot and we have, a Jack LaLanne juicer as well as a Montel Williams Living Well system. We have purple cabbage, carrots  and parsley once a week in juice form. There are lots of great benefits to juicing. Parsley has such a high concentration of vitamins you can not drink too much of it! We have no more than 2 tablespoons of it!

I hope you visit Ms. Jenny and share your favorite "W" today! All the Alphabe Thursday participates welcome your visits.

Love is.....

I always have loved Eskimo kissing! It is so sweet. I had to share this with you today.
Please stop by and visit Marydon so you can share your favorite Love is...too!

Here is a bit of Blue Monday

 

Baked Alaska Recipe

Ice cream is really a traditional Italian treat. Squeezed between homemade sponge cake and a fluffy meringue topping, it turns into a fantastic British dessert: Baked Alaska.
Sponge cake smothered with ice cream and topped with a layer of meringue – baked Alaska is 1 of those retro puddings that everyone loves, even if it’s not chic to say so. But now it’s coming back into fashion – even Michelin starred chef Heston Blumenthal has a recipe for baked Alaska, though he does serve his on dry ice for added drama. It is not the simplest dish to make, but is well worth the effort. This recipe, for a chocolate baked Alaska, which appears here with permission, comes from Masterchef presenter Gregg Wallace’s cookbook Gregg’s Favourite Puddings (Octopus £17.99). Gregg uses chocolate ice cream to give a twist to this traditional pudding – should you can get hold of some very good high quality Italian ice cream it will make the dish even a lot more delicious.
Ingredients (serves 10)
For the Sponge:
* 50g (2oz) unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
* 50g (2oz) caster sugar
* 1 egg
* 40g (1 ½ oz) self-raising flour
* 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
* 15g (½oz) cocoa powder
* 2 tablespoons coffee flavoured liqueur
For the Topping:
* 1 litre (1 ¾ pint) round tub chocolate ice cream
* 250g (8oz) plain chocolate, broken into pieces
* 75g (3oz) unsalted butter
* 4 egg whites
* 250g (8oz) caster sugar

I was thinking of this wonderful desert my mother use to serve when I was a kid. Then I found some perfect blues:

 A crisp blue shot of Alaska.

A map showing Alaska in pretty blue.

Now stop by the Blues today and share your favorites with us.

Special request: Please pray for Hannah (at jury duty). Juan who was unfairly treated and in a serious situation at school. Pray for the family of Tony, a sophomore at Nick's school. Unsure how his young life ended and  what happened. Pray for his family. Such a tremendous and very unbelievably sad situation. Thank you. Pass it on please.

A Sad Pink Saturday

 A sad share today. Yesterday was the 17th anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing.

I read that in 2004 the Oklahoma Rose was added to their state flower. I just hope we never forget. 168 lives cut short , their memory intact in the hearts and minds of those who loved them.

Today the 13th anniversary of  Columbine High School. Thirteen lives gone but not forgotten. Leaving loved ones without their smiles, their lives forever changed.

The white peace rose. A hopeful symbol to stop the bullying. Today a beautiful Spring day and then my son's high school sent an email. A young man's life cut short, possibly self inflicted. Kids saying he was quiet, he was bullied . I have seen no great change since Oklahoma City, since Columbine. A sad world we live in. Be politically correct. Don't pray, be hateful. Be cruel. Television endorses hateful behavior. Yet no one can ever stop the bullying.

If you are not being bullied all I would say - cause I like to talk about the other side of it as well - is you know, be someone that nurtures, and if there's someone in your class that maybe doesn't have a lot of friends, be the person that sits with them in the cafeteria sometimes; be the bigger person.
Lady Gaga

I really had to write this today. I hope none of you will ever forget. Let me thank Beverly because she does a wonderful job of keeping us in the pink loop each weekend. I hope you will visit some pinkies today.

A "V Post!

I am very late! After various attempts to decide what "V" word I would like to work with I decided on "volcano". It is going to start with a song:

I L O V E Jimmy Buffet. This song is so cool and when my grandson Colton (15) was small we use to sing it together!

Do you remember Mount St. Helen's? Rather I should ask, do you remember the 1980 eruption? Fifty seven people were killed. One of the victims was 83 year old Harry R. Truman who lived there for 54 years died when he refused to leave his home. His body was never recovered.

Mount St. Helen's is an active stratovolcano. It is located in the Pacific Northwest 96 miles south from Seattle, Washington and 50 miles northeast of Portland, Oregon.

Two year after the volcanic eruption President Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Congress established the Mount St. Helen's National Volcanic Monument. , a 110,000 acre area around the mountain and within the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. This was created in the aftermath of the earthquake to allow it to be scientifically studied.

I hope this little information will send you to our teacher Miss Jenny to join the Aphabe Thursday fun.

Blue Monday From Me to You!

I am feeling a little blue! Our baby Nick will graduate on May 15th from high school and then he will begin a new journey, college. He will head to southCentral Kansas and attend college there. He is our runner and as the track and field season starts to wind down I am feeling very vulnerable. I want him to be independent and yet I want him close to us. I wanted to share his blue graduation photos with you. My hubby's former co worker Bernard owns his own photography  business called www.1focustree.com/. He does really beautiful work!

Please visit Sally and all the beautiful blues!

Finally I want to share a favorite poem here:

“Success”
Inaccurately attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson

To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.

---

“What Constitutes Success”
By Bessie Stanley (1905)

He has achieved success who has lived well,
laughed often and loved much;
who has gained the respect of intelligent men
and the love of little children;
who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
who has left the world better than he found it,
whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
who has never lacked appreciation of earth’s beauty
or failed to express it;
who has always looked for the best in others
and given them the best he had;
whose life was an inspiration;
whose memory a benediction.

A sweet memory to share for Love is...Please visit Marydon

PINK SATURDAY

Spring is popping up everywhere!We are due for a wet and cold Sunday and our mountains will get snow and it may trickled down to Denver but we can always use the moisture.

I love this sweet photo. It is courtesy of google image. Do you love those pink blossoms?

I shared some of this delicious frozen yogurt today with my honey! We had banana, coconut and blackberry. The blackberry was a pretty pink delectable treat!

Put out your favorite pinks and skip over to Beverly's to join all the pinkies for a weekend of pinkness!

"U" is for UNIQUE

I like being unique! I know I am one of a kind! I am not being rude or arrogant. I know each one of us is as individual as each star in the sky or a grain of sand on a beach! So I wanted to use the word unique as my "U"word! I hope you will stop by Jenny's and join the Alphabe Thursday crowd.

Psalm 139:13-18

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

 ¹³ For You formed my ^[a]inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will give thanks to You, for ^[b]I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My ^[c]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
¹⁶ Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.
 ¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

Love is.../ Blue Monday

This was the two of us a few weeks ago. Painting, cleaning around the house. Now we are hoping for the warm weather to stay so we may work in our yard. We had a beautiful Easter Sunday with the phamily. We ate ham and turkey and all the trimmings. We make our He is Risen egg shaped cake each year. This year we made a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and added fresh strawberries and real whipped cream . It was a wonderful dessert and we like the message Hannah writes on it each year.  Come over to Marydon's and celebrate Love is....with us.

This was a blue treat we tucked in the kids Easter bag this year! I love peeps and have ot have them each Easter. They now sell peeps with chocolate coating. I am not sure I would like the combination. I hope you will join Sally and all the Blue crew!

Enjoy your week!

The Quilt Project Journey

Hi and welcome to my edition of Pink Saturday. Stop by Beverly's and enjoy some pink! I wish each and everyone a beautiful and blessed Easter weekend!

Sue allowed us to use these sweet photos of the quilting project. She is finishing the quilts so they can go to their new homes , with Shannon's family in California and Crew in Arkansas.  Thank you again to each and every person who participated in this rewarding journey. Suzanne put all those gorgeous squares together and sewed each piece with such love and care. Then she packed the quilts filled with warm wishes and notes and sent them to Sue! Both of these ladies were so instrumental in making this work! Thank you each and everyone. You all made me smile because we all made these families see the love and kindness in so many. God Bless You!

"T" is for Tea Time

When I participated in a tea cup swap I received this beautiful violet flowered tea cup and saucer. It is a favorite of mine.

How about a birthday celebration with a teacup cupcake? A sweet gift from a lovely friend.

A tea server with cups and saucers and a bunny with Easter cupcakes!

An elephant teapot. It is on my wish list!

Do you have a favorite tea? I love jasmine tea for special occasions. It is so rich I can't drink it each day! I am a fan of peppermint! It soothes an upset tummy! Earl Grey, Darjeeling, English breakfast, a few more favorites. A bedtime favorite is Celestial Seasoning Sleepy Time Tea! I drink it most evenings before bed. I prefer honey over sugar to sweeten my tea. In the summer we drink lots of Sweet Tea!

I am sharing the letter T today with the terrific team at Ms. Jenny's Alphabe Thursday. I am a tea loving blogger! I hope you are too!

Love is....Blue Monday

Do you keep a photo of your loved ones near? I do! I have them at work and all over my home. This Love is... is sweet and see the blue in the photo? I love it! I thought I would share this today with Marydon and all the girls at Love is...

I need a bit more of blue....

How about a pretty blue sky with a bright sunflower? This flower reminds me of sunshine and happiness.

I haven't talked about the Broncos. So here is a sweet ladies t with the Breast Cancer Awareness theme. I suppose I will need a Peyton Manning Bronco shirt too! I was sad that Tebow left. Sad that Mark Sanchez of the Jet was blindsided by the whole trade! But I love some sweet "eye candy" and Tebow and Sanchez are both as handsome as can be! Perhaps Tebow is needed elsewhere because he is a man of God and the Lord might be sending him elsewhere to spread the gospel! The times we live in are tough so I am always thinking the Lord wants more folks on His team than anyone elses.

Enjoy my blues and visit Sweet Sally and the entire blue crew!